Amir Taheri - the former Executive Editor of Kayhan, Iran’s largest daily newspaper, who now lives in Europe- has written an evaluation of the Iranian regime’s recent behavior for which the term “worrisome” is a vast understatement.
Last year, it was after another khalvat [one on one with the Hidden Imam] that Ahmadinejad announced his intention to stand for president. Now, he boasts that the Imam gave him the presidency for a single task: provoking a “clash of civilisations” in which the Muslim world, led by Iran, takes on the “infidel” West, led by the United States, and defeats it in a slow but prolonged contest that, in military jargon, sounds like a low intensity, asymmetrical war.In Ahmadinejad’s analysis, the rising Islamic “superpower” has decisive advantages over the infidel. Islam has four times as many young men of fighting age as the West, with its ageing populations. Hundreds of millions of Muslim “ghazis” (holy raiders) are keen to become martyrs while the infidel youths, loving life and fearing death, hate to fight. Islam also has four-fifths of the world’s oil reserves, and so controls the lifeblood of the infidel. More importantly, the US, the only infidel power still capable of fighting, is hated by most other nations.
Indeed it seems to be. If you read Taheri’s complete article you may be even more disturbed by his predictions than his analysis. On the more optimistic side is The Euston Manifesto, which shows some of my old colleagues on the left are waking up to the current situation. Good for them. We need to work together at this moment, not resort to name-calling.
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6 Comments
1. David Thomson:ìWe stand for global economic development-as-freedom and against structural economic oppression and environmental degradation. The current expansion of global markets and free trade must not be allowed to serve the narrow interests of a small corporate elite in the developed world and their associates in developing countries.î
—The Euston Manifesto
I wish these people might take the time to study the economic writings of Ludwig von Mises and Fredreich Hayek. They are have a moral obligation to get beyond their ideological self-righteousness. Oh well, one still has to compliment them for taking a few serious steps in the right direction.
Apr 16, 2006 - 11:35 am 2. rocketsbrain:Lose the Army of Davids ! ! !
Now Please!
Anyone reading this thread should go immediately to Atlas Shrugs and see this plea from an Iranian girl in the comment thread that has more collective wisdom than all of the LL and MSM combined!
RBT
Apr 16, 2006 - 12:42 pm 3. David Thomson:ìPlease don’t think Iranian people are suppoirtive of Ahmadinejad’s political views.î
The young lady may have the best intentions—but so what? How much power does she possess? It wouldnít surprise me if the vast majority of Iranians reject Ahmadinejad’s nihilistic ideology. At the end of the day, however, this nut case may have the ability to exterminate millions of people.
Has Ahmadinejad already been checked and balanced by Iranís power elite? We have no way of knowing for sure. This is why we may have to opt for military action. Better safe than sorry.
Apr 16, 2006 - 2:19 pm 4. chipengineer:>In Ahmadinejad’s analysis, the rising Islamic “superpower” has decisive advantages over the infidel. Islam has four times as many young men of fighting age as the West, with its ageing populations. Hundreds of millions of Muslim “ghazis” (holy raiders) are keen to become martyrs while the infidel youths, loving life and fearing death, hate to fight.
What he does not understand is that most of our ‘infidel youths’ have been training all their lives to control robot fighting machines, which we will soon produce in large numbers.
Apr 16, 2006 - 3:52 pm 5. Godzilla:Personally, I think that Iran will nuke Israel. It’s only a matter of when. I asked myself, what would I do if I lived in Israel, a future ground zero with the time clock ticking down, and if I did not have any confidence that the government would do what is required to eradicate the threat?
I’d make plans to leave, live somewhere else. It would be the only act I could take to protect my family, that did not rely on the government taking a preemptives strike. I wondered if there was already an reverse exodus in the works, Israelis leaving Isreal. Common sense dictates that there would be, because the threat is not an abstraction to them, but real.
So I did an internet search using as keywords, “jews leaving Israel”, and got over 100 returns. Apparently, there are people leaving.
Good for them. They’ll be the survivors.
Apr 16, 2006 - 8:29 pm 6. neo-neocon:Very very disturbing article by Taheri–but quite persuasive, I’m afraid. I wrote about it in this post, but with an emphasis on a phenomenon Taheri touches on that I call “Waiting for AB–After Bush.”
I realize, of course, that opponents of Bush need to speak their minds. But it’s struck me for quite some time now that the tenor of the opposition to Bush–specifically, its failure to convey a resolve in fighting the Islamist jihadists round the world–is giving a very encouraging message to Iran and others: that all they need to do is to wait Bush out.
Apr 17, 2006 - 8:35 am